Air And Space Annex

Date: 12th Feb

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Annex, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, was very very cool. Located just next to Dulles Airport, it was a fair distance to get to (about 90mins by public transport) is definitely worth the visit, and for a nut like myself, a full day is needed.

This is where the Smithsonian has been hiding all their cool stuff. Space Shuttle Orbiter Discovery, the Concorde, and the SR-71 were notable highlights. I had to keep reminding myself that these aren't just mockups, or hollow shells. Some of these aircraft took their final flight into Dulles and were then rolled almost as is into the museum (they removed all the various liquids, fuel, oil, etc). 

The Orbiter did have its engines missing as NASA wanted to keep those for another mission. NASA were also kind enough to remove the various toxic materials from the Orbiter. They did offer to clean Discovery up, replace the tiles etc, but thank goodness the museum said No Way. There she is, almost exactly as she was when she last touched down from orbit.

I couldn't help but snap a lot of photos of the Orbiter. But I didn't leave the other vessels out...

There's a huge amount of aircraft here, but they've got room for more!

Yes, it's actually that Enola Gay, the original, real one.

Washington DC

Date: 11th Feb

First night in DC was spent recovering from the travel. Those flights are becoming quite the killer. Next time I think I'll just explore everywhere by ship.

Second day was Air & Space Museum, the air side. Its been about 20 years since I was last here, and I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not that a lot of it is very familiar. Whilst museums are suppose to hold artefacts of the past, should they also keep fresh?

I will say they've done a good job at being at the level of kids and adults, the information is almost literally displayed at two levels. 

Day 3 has me in the morning doing the Space side of the Air and Space, including the planetarium. I think that they are limited by physical space, as there is definitely a lot more they could go in to, and hint that they have, but not display.

The afternoon is at the National Art Gallery which I feel was for me, better than the Lourve. Here I actually got to see some famous works by famous artists, without there being an overwhelming amount of it. I also found it fascinating that I could look up close at the paintings, no rope lines, no glass cases. It's also disturbing that some great works are only one mad mans knife slash away from being damaged forever.

The afternoon found me at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. I didn't have time to do the entire museum, obviously, but I did stumble into the geology and minerals section. It's possible that they've just got replicas on display, but there behind simple glass cabinets were some very expensive pieces of carbon. The Oppenheimer Diamond is 250 or so carat uncut diamond, just casually next to other equally expensive stones.

The temperature is only -2°C at the moment, but the windchill is significant, which is making DC rather cold.

Majestic London

I'm actually running a day behind my original schedule due to timing issues with the two tours recently, so London has been cut short! My original purpose of the European whirlwind tour was to find the places I should spend time at, and I've done so with the likes of Florrence, Munich, Rome, etc. London also goes on that list. At least a week will be allocated for here, depending on budget, even more. 

Which brings me to my next point - cost. Wow, things are generally speaking very expensive. As an example, transport inner zone (eg not leaving central London) will cost you up to £7 a day. That's about NZ $15, and on another £5.80 (NZ $13) for transport to and from central London to the suburbs, and we are talking real money each day.

I've found that for decimal based currency (where they have cents), it's easier and the prices seen "right" when you ignore the exchange rate. This is seems like it might a good indicator of approximate salary, 2 times your NZ salary in London. That probably/definitely only applies with the big cities, I'm not sure but I imagine the cost of living in a small village is slightly lower :-D

First full day in London I went shirt shopping and have brought a very nice double cuff shirt from a Jerym St establishment. Fortunately I was able to find something not in the traditional white or blue colours that are something of a uniform around here. Though they've introduced Lavender for the more outrageous man (gasp!). My shirt is an interesting, almost silver appearance, comes from a bolder outfit with the unlikely moniker of "Pink".

Day 1 of London also brought along a visit to the London Science museum for their exhibition on Space. The cosmonaut special exhibit was interesting and it was nice to see the size of the Vostok capsule in real life. 

I also found a Cray supercomputer, something that should bring back memories for anyone in my generation or older.

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is just outside of Frankfurt, Germany, and is where ESOC is located. The town has labeled itself a technology city, with good reason, along with ESOC we saw many other well known, and lesser known, tech companies.

The town itself is beautiful though, in what I've almost come to expect from Germany there are beautiful cobblestone roads and squares in the centre. It's a mix of old and new that is done right. And the pub we went to for dinner was just delicious.

ESOC

So if CERN was like every other physics campus (but massively scaled up and with particle accelerators), then ESOC was like how I imagine space agencies should be. Very shiny and modern. Lots of glass, lots of new, lots of security.

Our host signed us in, and despite the very wet weather we had an awesome tour, getting to see many aspects of the place including the main control centre.

Each mission has its own small control centre once it's underway, but the main control centre is used for launch (and I think maybe significant phases such as landing). 

We were finally lucky enough to shop at their gift shop. Luckily, because the shop is not open to the public. I'm sporting a new ESA jacket and polo, as well as some other odds and ends. Too much an opportunity not to take up, can't find this online.

CERN

Date: 3rd Feb

Yesterday we went to CERN with our gracious host. Regrettably he injured his knee recently and stairs were not his forte, that combined with the LHC being shutdown for maintenance meant I wasn't able to actually get to the LHC tunnel, but I did get to see an actual, though smaller, particle accelerator. 

CERN reminds me, unsurprisingly, of a very upscaled version of every University physics campus I've been to. It's a cool place with lots of really interesting work going on, but anyone expecting a shiny futurist campus is definitely in the wrong place - try Apple HQ. 

Once again, confirming my previously mentioned hypothesis, we had Italian, this time for dinner and it was very good. At least before then we had a very French cheese and bread light meal at a bar.

Rest Day

Date: 1st Feb

Today was very much a rest day, and a real rest day at that. Nothing specific planned, nothing to pack for tomorrow, no big journeys the next day, just rest. It's also the start of the slower pace of the rest of my trip. From now on I spend at least two full days in each stop, and for a few stops, I spend 4 or more whole days. It's almost a holiday!

But today was spent in Ferney-Voltaire, a small French town that borders Switzerland. Being in France, it's a lot cheaper to do, well, anything. Switzerland is so damn expensive. A basic small burger at a pub is NZD$30. A pint of bitter is NZD$12. I'm not even going to calculate how much a glass of Lagavulin would have cost, I didn't buy it as I'm fairly sure my bank would ring up the next day demanding payment or they'd go under.

A late lunch was at an Italian restaurant, I know it sounds terrible to do so, and I should have been at a French cafe, but the cafes were either closed or had more beer than food.

I've found in my travels here that the best food for a region is found outside that region. Best French food, Italy. Best Italian, definitely France, best bangers-and-mash, Switzerland. I haven't had haggis, but I bet the best version would be in Netherlands or Germany or something.

Tomorrow we head to CERN.